Six years had passed since Valentín was not able to let his mind travel to the place that had loved him the most. He had decided to run away from Huérfanos Cristianos Street 13 the same day Celsa and José’s wedding had been announced.

Celsa and José were his pillars of support in San Antón, the village that witnessed his birth. San Antón belongs to the city of Toledo, which is not a very appealing village, but it is definitely known for its bullfights. Kids used to be trained to fight at the heifers since a very young age. They also enjoyed taking the Virgen de la Salud out in a parade every year.

The three of them had a very strong connection between each other since their childhood, but as years went by, Celsa and José fell in love. Valentín started to feel that his role in their friendship became secondary so he started to look for the love and affection he was lacking in other people, new friends to hang out with... or at least, someone who would not make him feel as the third wheel.

Valentín decided he wanted to learn how to bullfight. He spent every Monday and Tuesday in the bullring near his house. The rest of the week, he started to attend the masses that bishop Maximiliano used to celebrate, with the aim of becoming an altar boy someday.

Three years had passed and everything was apparently the same, but something inside Valentín had changed. He had met his new loves during his catechesis sessions and, while bullfighting, the forbidden sensuality. And I say forbidden because, in a place like San Antón, homosexuals were still seen as the impurest representation of humankind. As if they were the devil himself.

Every 15th of August, Toledans used to organize one of their oldest traditions, in which the whole city gathered in front of Puerta del Reloj of the Toledo cathedral to drink miraculous water, previously taken from the Virgen del Sagrario’s well. Celebration lasted seven days, so people kept on drinking miraculous water for a week while a huge festival was being held in the Town Hall Square.

Valentín was in charge of collecting the water that year, so he had to wake up every night to go to the well and fill the jugs that he would distribute to the neighbors later. Casually, during all these late night walks he always ended up meeting his church’s sacristy fellow Bernardo, who was also a bullfighter. They both were really good friends since the catechesis years and there was a very magnetic attraction between each other... so the intense kisses became a regular thing while crossing the cathedral corridors. These weekly nocturnal meetings made them want to share their passion daily, and they did... always looking for new places to hide from the judicious looks of the villagers.

Years kept passing by, Valentín and Bernardo shared a flat and often walked back home together once the bullfights were over, becoming the center of attention. They had managed to share their love in private and they even played games between each other, flirting with other girls not to arouse suspicion in front of their bullfighting fellows, or sometimes just to have a good time.

Everything was just as usual, until something really bad happened. On monday the 12th of october of 1996, Bernardo faced one of his most important bullfights in his entire career as a bullfighter. The duel seemed to be under control. Bernardo and the bull faced each other in the arena, the matador gave him two passes with his left but the bull lowered his head and surprised him. The bull shakes him and charges him. Thus causing the sudden death of Bernardo. The images went viral, and the town was flooded in mourning for a year. On the same day of his death, Valentin left home at dawn, at the same time he was with Bernardo to go for the miraculous water and wrote on the smooth wall of the bullring: “unfair life, what is I have gone with you” adding his own name at the end of the farewell.

That was the last day that Valentine was seen in San Antón. He disappeared without warning, he knew that if he remained in town after that message written on the wall, the mourning for Bernardo would become a constant mockery that would take away the prestige of the love of his life.

CLOTHES EMEERREE, IAGO OTERO AND D-THE BRAND